Rating: K
Across from the field where the famous Konoha memorial stone lies, there is a small grassy field with a tiny pond in the center. A thick wall of trees does its best to block the view of the sad monument from the happy field, but if you position yourself just so at the south end of the water, you can see the shape of the stone staring back at you through a small crack in the foliage. This exact spot is where Sakura had been spending every afternoon for the past four and a half years with her four year old daughter, Kinomi.
She would sit there with her toes in the water, leaning back onto her hands, while Kinomi picked the flowers around her, and by the end of the trip, Sakura would walk home with a toddler in one hand and a small bouquet of daisies in the other. And up until the time of his death, she'd sworn she would never be like her sensei - always standing around by that depressing old rock, staring at one engraved name for who knows how long. But when he'd passed... It was so hard for her not to do just that, until she found the meadow. And she figures as long as she's not standing directly in front of the memorial, she's keeping her promise to herself.
Still, when she's not watching the child to make sure she doesn't fall into the pool, she's staring directly through that gap in the trees.
She normally does this with herself and Kinomi alone, and they're usually not bothered throughout the duration of their stay. But on one of these trips, that changes. It's just as Sakura is helping her daughter tug a particularly well rooted bloom out of the ground that a boy in a telltale orange jumpsuit settles himself at her side.
"It's funny, isn't it," Sakura says when he sits down, "that just a few steps away from that dreadful stone is this beautiful place?"
"Is this why you're never home this time of day?" Naruto asks without acknowledging her observation.
Sakura's eyes fall shut and she tilts her head back to soak in the warm sunshine. She hums affirmatively before returning her gaze to the sliver of space between the plant life that leaves way for the monument to be seen. "If you look just through there, you can see it, too."
Curiously, Naruto leans over, invading Sakura's personal space for just a moment so he can see exactly what she's talking about. When it comes into view, he nods and returns back to his original position, staying quiet for a moment before quietly saying, "It's not fair. I mean, that he had to go so soon. We weren't done with him yet."
"No, it's not, is it?" Sakura sighs. At the sound of a squeal from her girl, she turns just in time to see Kinomi toddling their way at full speed with something apparently very fascinating in hand. The mother expectantly extends her palm, and sure enough, Kinomi places a bouquet of daisies in the center - the small electric shock from the girl's fingertips doesn't even surprise Sakura anymore. When her daughter looks up at her, charcoal grey eyes wide with uninhibited joy and fascination, a sharp pang of regret shoots through Sakura's heart and she says, "I just wish I'd gotten the chance to tell him before he left."